“What do you do in this situation if you’re a journalist? Help? Ask doctor to come? Or take a photo?” she told USA Today. “In that very moment, I realized that to show the world what was happening in this moment of terror, a photo was more important.”

“The people I photographed were not able to run and I wasn’t able to help them. It was very, very difficult for me to leave them. I was the only person on my feet. I wanted to help all of them but I couldn’t. I left them. I had to — we expected a third explosion.”

Kardava’s dilemma isn’t an unusual one for combat photographers. And on Tuesday, Brussels was engaged in combat.

What happened to the women?

The most seriously injured — Nidhi Chapekar, 40, a Jet Airways flight attendant — is in the hospital. The photograph is how her family in Mumbai learned she was alive after the blasts.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories.